Things to love about Iris

As Iris is smack dab in the middle of her two's, we continue to marvel at her learning, her personality, and interests. Last week, she started sleeping on a mattress without her crib. So, she is comforted by many stuffed animal friends, and enough blankets to cover her whole bedroom floor. She loves her blankets, with the yellow one that we brought to China as her favorite. Lately, she wants to wear it like a dress tied around the back.
Other things we love about Iris:
- her growing desire to cook in her play kitchen and serve plastic food to us and friends.
- her hobby of squirting the bottle to clean her playhouse and other patio furniture
- her new desire to play "ABC" (she says, "EZ") games on the computer.
- her saying, "no, sing mommy", so that she can sing her versions of "Old Mcdonald had a Farm", "Baa Baa Black Sheep" "Jesus Loves me" "Do you know the muffin man?"
- how she laughs when she hears herself snort
- her "uppy" when she wants one of us to carry her
- Saying "take it" when she means "get it" or "keep it"
- reciting lines from books, such as Cinderella, Go Dog Go, and Green Eggs and Ham
- her signal to "watch" a video from her growing video collection (Note: Blue's clues and Vegie Tale series are still popular with her)

Here's a photo of her sitting with new vegetable "toys" knitted by dear Aunt Ruth. There's an eggplant, tomato, two cucumbers, two pea pods, and a carrot coming soon.

As you can see in this picture, she continues to enjoy painting and asking mom to draw Big Bird and Barkley because of the video, "Big Bird in China". I can't wait to see how she channels her creativity. I also wonder what she really thinks about her mama and Dada when we're being silly and making her food talk.
Well, this entry could go long, so let me close by saying that we still enjoy being her parents and are constantly asking ourselves, "What's the next change and/or issue to address with Iris?" Disciplining her "cuteness" is a toughy. Please pray that we'll respond her with firmness and love.

From house to house

For two months, Iris has been saying, "Wendy house" that refers to her playhouse that Dad has been building in the garage. So, the house is up, thanks in part to our two tall, young nephews that helped carry the floor & walls and hammered together the pieces to place the new playhouse in the backyard. Although the doors and windows still need to be put in, it looks very good and Iris loves it. She's into using a squirt bottle and a towel to clean around her house. Who knows why! I think she likes water and likes the control of spraying around. Here's a photo with her Ai-yi Ruth.
In addition to that house, Iris recently took a trip to see Dad's side of the family. It was to celebrate Grandpa and Grandma's 50th wedding anniversary. She stayed with the grandparents for two nights and one night with an aunt. There were several cousins who enjoyed watching her, especially in the pool. Iris really liked the "boat ride" on the inflatable raft that Dad pushed her around the pool in. The worst part of the visit was the cough, runny nose and fever that Iris suffered on the day she returned home. She is on the mend, but the cough was bad enough to change her voice. I think the travel was just too much after days of excitement with relatives that she's only seen a few times.

She is not quite back into a routine and she'll be attending a week of Vacation Bible School at Mom's church next week. As she continues to say more words and ask for things, it will be interesting to see what she learns there next week. Summer school for me starts, too. It is for keeping sane with all the summer activities and busy-ness of work that I would like prayers. God help us all!